Visit our MS learning channel on YouTube, which provides hundreds of MS educational videospresented by MS Experts from across the USA. Archived here: www.youtube.com/msviewsandnews-- Also please visit our Social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram . Each providingimportant information for the MS community. Furthermore, scroll down the left side of this blog to learn from the resources and links.

Disclaimer:'MS Views and News' DOES NOT endorse any products or services found on this blog. It is up to you to seek advice from your healthcare provider. The intent of this blog is to provide information on various medical conditions, medications, treatments, for your personal knowledge and to keep you informed of current health-related issues. It is not a substitute for the advice of your physician. Should you or your family members have any specific medical problem, seek medical care promptly.

Myelination of the central nervous system is performed by oligodendrocytes, which have been implicated in brain disorders such as multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia. We have used the human oligodendroglial cell line MO3.13 to establish an oligodendrocyte reference proteome database. Approximately 11,600 unique peptides were identified and, after stringent filtering, resulted in 2,290 proteins representing 9 distinct biological processes and various molecular classes and functions. Oligodendrocyte-specific proteins such as MBP and CNP as well as proteins involved in multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia were also identified. Proteins of this dataset have also been classified according to their chromosomal origin for providing useful data to the chromosome-centric human proteome project (C-HPP). Given the importance of oligodendrocytes in the aetiology of demyelinating and oligodendrogial disorders, the MO3.13 proteome database will provide a valuable resource. The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD000263.

When you have an idea what Health looks like you can work out what is different in disease and it may give you ideas of what processes are occurring. This study aims to help understand what the background should be.

Brenda Della Casa had been seeing her primary care physician for two years and had brushed off her concerns about getting rushed care - until she had a health scare she couldn’t ignore. She told her doctor she was experiencing terrible back pain and stomachaches. Her doctor checked her, said she was fine, and sent her on her way.

Five days later, Della Casa, an author and dating coach in Chicago, was traveling and had pains so severe she could barely move. When she received a voicemail from her doctor saying she had “misread her results” and needed to be treated immediately for a kidney infection, she was furious. “I decided then and there I would never see her again,” Della Casa tells WebMD.

Breaking up with your doctor is not a choice most people take lightly, but there may come a time when it's the single best decision for you and your health. Some patients have had complaints that have been mounting over the years. Others decide to fire their doctor after one heated episode - perhaps because of a missed diagnosis like Della Casa, a disagreeable interaction, or a health concern that was dismissed.

"Patients don’t want to break up with their doctor," says Gregory Makoul, PhD, Chief Academic Officer at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, Conn. "They will often put up with a relationship that isn’t going great for them."

But that may be a mistake.

"It’s critical to remember it’s a relationship," Makoul tells WebMD. "People often think it’s a one-way relationship, but the doctor is invested, too. If you think it’s a business transaction, you’re missing an important part of the picture."

Wait, Can You Hear Me Now?

Ann Middleman, a marketing research consultant in Westbury, N.Y., had been seeing the same ob-gyn for more than eight years. During a routine check-up, she was surprised to learn she had gained 10 pounds. When she asked if her thyroid should be checked, her question was dismissed. Instead, the doctor responded, "You eat too much!"

After the appointment, Middleman wrote a letter to the office explaining that the doctor had been rude and insensitive so she would no longer need her services. "I don’t consider myself too demanding," she says. "I expect somebody to treat me with respect, honesty, and politeness -- someone who talks to me like I'm a human being."

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

A research study headed by Victoria Leavitt, Ph.D. and James Sumowski, Ph.D., of Kessler Foundation, provides the first evidence for beneficial effects of aerobic exercise.

Hippocampal atrophy seen in MS is linked to the memory deficits that affect approximately 50% of individuals with MS. Despite the prevalence of this disabling symptom, there are no effective pharmacological or behavioral treatments.

The study's participants were two MS patients with memory deficits who were randomized to non-aerobic (stretching) and aerobic (stationary cycling) conditions. Baseline and follow-up measurements were recorded before and after the treatment protocol of 30-minute exercise sessions 3 times per week for 3 months.

He did not unveil exact details about the time when the drug is exported.

Qazizadeh Hashemi also underlined that Iran plans to increase the figure to $100 million in the future, adding that currently Iran's total MS drug exports` value reaches $25 million.

He expressed hope that Iran's share from world drug market will be increased.

Iran itself suffers from multiple sclerosis, which, according to statements, reports and studies, is developing in the country.

Deputy chairman of the Iran Multiple Sclerosis Society, Mohammad Ali Saraian said in May that multiple sclerosis is developing among youth in Iran. He said that compared to 10 years ago, multiple sclerosis in the country has increased, judging by the people who come for treatment.

Saraian noted that mostly the cases of multiple sclerosis have increased in such cities as Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan. Despite the fact that some Iranian sources claim there are some 50,000 multiple sclerosis patients in Iran, Saraian noted that there are no exact statistics on the disease.

Previously, Saraian said that Iran will be releasing new oral Multiple sclerosis treatment on the local markets in October of 2013.

In January 2013, Iranian television reported that scholars from the Tabriz Medical Research University have prepared an herbal substance which can completely cure multiple sclerosis.

The medicament is called "MS Nut" (Nutrition) and made of special oil plants. It is delivered in syrup form.

The scholars have been working to prepare the treatment for two and a half years. The medicament was tested on 100 multiple sclerosis patients. 65 of them completed the treatment. Most patients fully recovered, but those with more advanced forms of the disease were unable to.

According to the information, the period of treatment with "MS Nut" lasts from six months to a year. The treatment has been already licensed in Iran.

According to Iranian media, the number of multiple sclerosis patients has increased in Iran in recent years. Environmental factors are behind the wide spread nature of the disease.

If multiple sclerosis continues to spread so rapidly, in ten years every Iranian family will have one member with multiple sclerosis, the information said.

While onsiteat the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) 2013 annual meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, Medscape correspondent Andrew N. Wilner, MD spoke with Thomas P. Leist, Associate Professor of Neurology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about a promising therapeutic approach in multiple sclerosis (MS).

Autoimmunity in Multiple Sclerosis

Dr. Wilner: Dr. Leist, we have been hearing a lot about the immunopathology of MS, and the involvement of T cells is increasingly becoming a target of our therapies. Can you give us some background so that we can understand what is really happening with the disease and these treatments?

Dr. Leist: MS is an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis. Very often, we find that a patient with MS is at high risk of having a second autoimmune disease. Also, if we look at the families of patients with MS, in about 1 in 7 patients there is another relative with MS . Autoimmune diseases run in some families. Members of such families can have an up to 30% risk of having an autoimmune disorder such as MS.

From that point of view, we have a genetic contribution and an immune system dysregulation. The immune system is what protects us from the environment. In MS, the immune system changes from a purely protective mechanism to a mechanism that is also self-injurious. Most people have some evidence of autoimmunity (for example, antinuclear antibodies), but this doesn't lead to disease. The difference in MS is evidence of self-directed disease.

For a long time, primarily on the basis of animal experiments, it was thought that the T cells were the sole or the predominant cells causing disease. In recent years, we have used medications as a "reverse engineering process" of the disease state of MS. We use a medication and then turn around and ask how it works and what questions it answers. What new doors does this medication open for further investigation, particularly when the answer wasn't what we expected?

MS researchers believe that MS is caused by a combination of two things. One, there must be an inherent genetic susceptibility for MS. Two, an environmental trigger activates MS in one with genetic susceptibility.

Researchers have found that even in identical twins, who share all the same DNA, there is only a 30 percent chance of both twins having MS. The rate of MS in fraternal twins (less than 1 percent) is the same as any other sibling pairings and is statistically very low.

If MS was purely a genetic based disease, than identical twins would both always get MS together. If MS was caused by a an environmental or lifestyle trigger, then fraternal twins would get MS in very similar levels to identical twins. So, the working theory is that it’s a combination.

This trigger is the elusive smoking gun for scientists. In theory, if we can prevent the trigger from being pulled, one with genetic susceptibility would not develop multiple sclerosis.

Could a Common Soil Bacteria be the Trigger?

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College working with Rockefeller University announced that Clostridium perfringens type B, a very common soil bacterium, was found in a human for the first time in history. This human happened to be a 21-year-old person living with MS.

This bacterium is commonly found in grazing animals and when infected, it produces a toxin called epsilon. The epsilon toxin then goes through the blood stream to the brain, causing damage to brain blood vessels and myelin, a nerve coating. The resulting damages produces symptoms similar to that of MS in humans.

There are five types of Clostridium perfringens. Some like type A appear to be harmless and are often found inside humans. While type D also emits epsilon toxin and was previously found in two other humans.

Was the Truth Hiding in Plain Sight?

A startling statistic demonstrated that patients with MS had levels of epsilon toxin antibodies ten times higher than those without MS.

“This bacterium produces a toxin that we normally think humans never encounter,” said Rashid K. Rumah in a press release.

“That we identified this bacterium in a human is important enough, but the fact that it is present in MS patients is truly significant because the toxin targets the exact tissues damaged during the acute MS disease process,” added Rashid, a sixth year MD-PhD student at Cornell University and first author of the study.

“[The bacterium] hibernates in a protective spore,” said Timothy Vartanian, professor of neurology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College and study author, in the press release. ”When it does grow, we anticipate it generates a small quantity of epsilon toxin, which travels through the blood into the brain.”

It sounds like such a major breakthrough. A common bacterium affecting grazing mammals, causing damage and symptoms so similar to human MS. And these symptoms have a relapsing – remitting feature to it as well. The news media and MS patient advocacy groups should all being yelling a cautionary “hooray!” And yet there has been nothing more than a big yawn.

Perhaps that is because we are bombarded each and every day with new symptom treatment medications, devices or techniques. Its like a 24/7 scrolling news-feed of headlines promising the next big cure of small and sometimes big things. Perhaps we are lulled into being emotionally numb due to overload. So many promises, so much disappointment.

The researchers from this article were very eager to let us know that although they described their research study’s sample size as small, its study’s findings were so “intriguing” that it prompted them to start work on new MS treatments.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

A new study by Kessler Foundation scientists sheds light on the mechanisms underlying cognitive fatigue in individuals with multiple sclerosis. Cognitive fatigue is fatigue resulting from mental work rather than from physical labor. Genova H et al: Examination of cognitive fatigue in multiple sclerosis using functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging” was published on Nov. 1 in PlosOne. This is the first study to use neuroimaging to investigate aspects of cognitive fatigue. The study was funded by grants from the National MS Society and Kessler Foundation.

The study investigated the neural correlates of cognitive fatigue in MS utilizing three neuroimaging approaches: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which allows researchers to look at where in the brain activation is associated with a task or an experience; diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which allows researchers to look at the health of the brain’s white matter; and voxel-based morphometry (VBM), which allows researchers to investigate structural changes in the brain. These three approaches were used to examine how likely it is for an individual to report fatigue (“trait” fatigue), as well as the fatigue an individual feels in the moment (“state” fatigue). This study is the first to use neuroimaging to investigate these two, separable aspects of fatigue.

In a collaboration between the Mayo Clinic and Acorda Therapeutics, Inc., a “first-in-human” trial of the drug rHIgM22to repair nerve damage caused by multiple sclerosis (MS) is currently recruiting volunteers.

Earlier animal studies of rHIgM22 showed improvements in motor activity, meaning a possible reversal of disability. If successful, this could be a groundbreaking achievement, particularly for those with progressive forms of MS, for which there are no treatments currently available.

How the Drug Works

In MS, the immune system targets myelin, the fatty covering that insulates nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, and destroys it. The body’s imperfect attempt to repair the damage leaves scar tissue, or “plaques,” in place of myelin. These plaques are less effective at transmitting signals between nerves, sometimes halting the signals altogether. When signals from the brain to the rest of the body are interrupted, disability results.

People with MS experience symptoms that, depending on the size, location, and number of plaques in their brain or spinal cord, can range from numbness and tingling to complete paralysis or blindness.

PET scanning using a new marker that attaches to myelin may be the next "gold standard" diagnostic tool for multiple sclerosis.

Waiting months or even years for a definitive diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) may soon be a thing of the past. Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have developed a breakthrough method of detecting myelin damage using positron emission tomography, or PET scanning.

MS is an autoimmune disease that destroys the fatty insulation, called myelin, that covers nerves in the brain and spinal cord, resulting in a vast array of symptoms. The many variations—and combinations—of MS symptoms make diagnosis difficult.

Until now, testing for MS meant ruling out every other possibility. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), treatment with an FDA-approved disease modifying drug “should be considered as soon as possible following a definite diagnosis of MS" in order to delay the disease progression. For those with a delayed diagnosis, however, treatment must wait.

“Our discovery brings new hope to clinicians who may be able to make an accurate diagnosis and prognosis in as little as a few hours, compared to months or even years,” said Yanming Wang, Ph.D., senior author of the study and an associate professor of radiology at Case Western, in a press release. “...it is particularly difficult to directly detect myelin damage in the spinal cord; this is the first time we have been able to image its function at the molecular level.”

The technique uses a new marker to detect and measure myelin changes. When the marker, known as MeDAS, is given to the patient through an IV injection, it can easily reach the brain and spinal cord and bind to the patient's myelin sheaths. The PET scanner then visualizes where the marker has accumulated in the patient's body.

“The concentration of MeDAS is high in the region where myelin remains intact,” Wang told Healthline, and low where myelin has been damaged. By using the MeDAS marker, “the integrity of myelin along the whole spinal cord can be examined and monitored over time.”

A New Gold Standard

A PET scanner is a large, ring-shaped device with a bed that slides into the center. After being given an injection containing positively-charged particles, or positrons—in this case, MeDAS—the patient is scanned while lying on the bed. The machine detects the MeDAS, which lights up on a computer monitor, creating the 3D image. Areas of demyelination will appear as dark areas on the scan.

For patients with MS who are used to undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, results that “light up like a Christmas tree”—indicating high disease activity—are undesirable. But having a PET scan using the MeDAS marker lighting up is a good thing because it means more myelin is present.

“Only trace amounts of MeDAS will be needed for the scan,” said Wang, “so it is safe for all people. No other medical conditions or prescription drugs exclude a person for using the technique.”

The PET scan typically takes between 60 and 90 minutes. "The data is then interpreted by a neuroradiologist who will read the scans," said Wang. “It normally requires specialized training to read them.”

The MeDAS will be metabolized and excreted out of the patient's body soon after the PET scan is completed, and there is no chance of an allergic reaction to the organic molecule. “There is no danger from repeated exposure to radiation in this type of PET scan due to the fact that the half-life of MeDAS is only 20 minutes,” Wang added.

Using this new molecular marker to highlight existing myelin sheaths will make areas of missing myelin obvious. This type of PET scan could soon replace MRIs for monitoring a patient’s disease progression during routine annual exams.

Traditionally, the MRI has been the gold standard for tracking disease activity in MS. But MRI is not selective and only shows the shadows of inconsistencies. Many other conditions, such as cancerous tumors, can mimic MS scarring on MRI images, so further testing is often required to rule them out.

Researchers are excited by their breakthrough and what it means for the future of MS. “This can become a standard diagnostic tool to monitor disease progression over time, verify a suspected relapse, and identify individuals at risk, who have family history of MS,” said Wang.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Adult stem cells, which the body uses for repair and maintenance, can be harvested from your own fat, bone marrow or other tissues.

They’re essentially blank slates, transforming into the cells of different tissues and organs. They also reproduce specialized cells, such as myelin, a fatty substance that coats nerves. With MS, the immune system attacks and destroys myelin.

Current multiple sclerosis treatment slows the immune system’s attack on nerves. But it doesn’t reverse MS symptoms, such as numbness, tremors and blindness, Dr. Burt says.

But stem cell treatment takes a different approach, for example, erasing an unhealthy immune system and rebuilding a healthy one, or creating new myelin to replace damaged nerve sheaths.

Because no stem cell therapies for MS have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yet, it may be several years before they’re publicly available, says Tim Coetzee, Ph.D., chief research officer for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Still, scientists are seeing promising results in clinical trials on people with MS, he says. Read on to find out how stem cell therapies are bringing new hope for the 2.1 million Americans coping with the incurable illness.

SYMPTOMS of MS

In multiple sclerosis , damage to the myelin in the central nervous system (CNS), and to the nerve fibers themselves, interferes with the transmission of nerve signals between the brain and spinal cord and other parts of the body. This disruption of nerve signals produces the primary symptoms of MS, which vary depending on where the damage has occurred.

Over the course of the disease, some symptoms will come and go, while others may be more lasting.

MS Views and News Guide Star Status

Find MS Views on Facebook

About This Blog

A web-blog (formerly known as Stu's Views and MS News), now published by MS Views and News, a patient advocacy organization. The information on this blog helps to Empower those affected by Multiple Sclerosis globally, with education, information, news and community resources.

MS Coalition Associate Member

MS Views and News

Healing the Soul, by B. Khatri, MD

Click photo for more detail

Sharecare Marketing - March 2014 - LISTED Stuart among the Top "10"

Social HealthMakers: Multiple Sclerosis

Disclaimer:

"Stu's Views & MS News" / 'MS Views and News' DOES NOT endorse any products or services found on this blog. It is up to you to seek advice from your healthcare provider. The intent of this blog is to provide information on various medical conditions, medications, treatments, and procedures for your personal knowledge and to keep you informed of current health-related issues. It is not intended to be complete or exhaustive, nor is it a substitute for the advice of your physician. Should you or your family members have any specific medical problem, seek medical care promptly

About Me

MS Views and News is a 501c3 Not-for-Profit organization that provides IMPACTFUL information to the MS (Multiple Sclerosis) community. To learn of the educational programs we provide live and virtually, opt-in with us from here: www.register.msviewsandnews.org
- thank you -

2014 MS Symposium from Miami, Fl

Brian Steingo, MD - Presents on Dietary & Self Aspects

MS Views and News

MS Views and News (MSVN), is dedicated to the global collection and distribution of information concerning Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Through partnering relationships, MSVN provides education, advocacy and service to empower and enhance the quality of life of the MS community.

Marketing Opportunities with MS Views and News

Att: Marketers :

Get New Exposure to either venues in Florida, the USA or Globally

Becoming a Sponsor of MS Views and News will enable us a few dollars more to host Multiple Sclerosis learning programs for those affected by MS and a sponsorship at the correct tier would place your logo and url on our site(s) and possibly with our social media offering you lots of new exposure.

FL Dept of Agriculture

MS Views and News, Inc. is registered with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Registration # CH37993

A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.